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The search company Google doesn’t offer just simple search page anymore. These days their own operating system Chrome has gained great popularity, largely due to the OS finding its way to cheap laptops and lately also desktops. One new notebook running on Google Chrome is Acer Chromebook 11 CB3-111-C670, which we’re taking under examination below.

What’s it made of?

Chromebooks are known for their budget price, which is a logical follow-up from budget components. This Acer features a low-end dual-core Intel Celeron N2830 clocking at 2.16GHz as its processor. Compared to faster Core i5 and i7 processors the Celeron does a bad job, but for lightweight use the performance of this Celeron processor is adequate.

The RAM amount is however barely enough. There is 2GB system memory installed which is arguably enough for lightweight use, but if you’d like to do multitasking, or have many tabs open on browser at a time, such RAM amount can become an obstacle. For the price though (around 200 bucks) I can complain only so much.

Acer Chromebook 11 CB3-111-C670’s internal storage consists of a solid-state drive. The space itself is small, just 16GB, but you’ll get 100GB more free storage from Google Cloud for two years. In addition, the solid-state drive might be small in size, but it surely is darn fast. If you’re used to older Windows laptops you’ll probably be amazed how quickly the system boots and operates (within limits, of course, as discussed above).

Display and Graphics

A true Chromebook, the Acer has small 11.6″ non-touch screen. The resolution is 1366×768. That configuration won’t give you lots of screen estate to work with, but will in turn lead to small weight (2.4 lbs) and long battery life (around 8 hours).

Graphics performance wasn’t ever a strong side for Chromebooks. They feature processor integrated graphics chips, like Intel HD Graphics in this particular model. It’s powerful enough for simple tasks you might do on a Chromebook, but devout gaming is out of question for that graphics chip – especially when you consider Chromebooks’ poor overall support for games.

Check out what other people are saying about this laptop on Amazon.com.

Connections

Acer Chromebook 11 CB3-111-C670 has just one USB 2.0 port and one USB 3.0 port. That’s not too many to play with if you want to use peripherals with the laptop. One solution would be to use an inexpensive USB hub. You connect that to a free USB port on the Chromebook, and on the other side of the hub there are free USB ports waiting to serve your peripheral needs.

HDMI output (but no VGA) is present, so you can use the Chromebook through a display that has HDMI input – like HDTV.

This Acer doesn’t come with RJ45 port, so you must use the dual-band WiFi to connect Internet. Bluetooth 4.0 should also work right out of the box.

Anything else to consider?

As it is, Acer Chromebook 11 CB3-111-C670 doesn’t feature DVD player. It would’ve been too much for such slim and lightweight laptop. In addition, Chromebooks don’t have the best support for optical drives – you can’t, for example, burn DVDs and CDs even if you tried that with an external optical drive. What you can do, however, is to use the built-in media card reader and transfer your data to the Chromebook through that.

There is a HD webcam installed so you can have video meetings almost Windows-style. The difference is that Skype isn’t supported on Chromebooks, instead you’d have to use Google Hangouts.

As noted above, Acer Chromebook 11 CB3-111-C670 makes a great companion for a traveler. It weighs mere 2.4 pounds, is around 0.7 inches thick and has battery life of up to 8.5 hours. The small size also has effect on the keyboard, there is no ten-key numeric pad on the right.

Final thoughts

Acer Chromebook 11 CB3-111-C670 is something a person with limited budget and lightweight computer needs might want to consider. It’s a replacement for more expensive and bulkier Windows laptops, and if you don’t tend to do heavy stuff (like gaming, Photoshopping, video editing) the performance of such a Chromebook is definitely adequate. Especially a student might find a lot of joy in it: The battery lasts a full day, the notebook weighs next to nothing and you can use Google’s online tools as good replacement for the traditional MS Office.